On dads and fatherhood

Dads sometimes seem like the forgotten parent, but believe me they are not. Here are some quotes on fatherhood and dads in general to honor this weekend's Father's Day:

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." –Mark Twain

"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters." –George Herbert

"The nature of impending fatherhood is that you are doing something that you're unqualified to do, and then you become qualified while doing it." –John Green

"That is the thankless position of the father in the family - the provider for all, and the enemy of all." –August Strindberg

"Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father." –Barack Obama

"Every father should remember one day his son will follow his example, not his advice." –Charles Kettering

"One of the greatest things a father can do for his children is to love their mother." –Howard W. Hunter

"If there is any immortality to be had among us human beings, it is certainly only in the love that we leave behind. Fathers like mine don't ever die." –Leo Buscaglia

"His values embraced family, reveled in the social mingling of the kitchen, and above all, welcomed the loving disorder of children." –John Cole

"There are many kinds of success in life worth having. It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful business man, or railway man, or farmer, or a successful lawyer or doctor; or a writer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions. But for unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison." –Theodore Roosevelt

"Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later . . . that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called 'Being a Father' so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life." –Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities

Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there!

© Marilda Mel White. Mel is a local writer/photographer and co-owner of Tehachapi Treasure Trove. She's been looking on the bright side for various publications since 1996, and welcomes your comments at [email protected].